Today, I embark on quite possibly the most exciting and terrifying journey of my life. I am traveling to Athens, Greece where I will be immersed in Greek culture from January to May. Through this experience, I hope to gain a better understanding of a culture besides American culture, practice and learn a different language, and broaden my views and perspectives on the world around me.
While in Athens, I will be studying at College Year in Athens and will be taking classes on urban sustainability and planning in Athens, ancient Greek and Aegean art, ancient Greek democracy, and a class on how social media has affected politics and the economic crisis in Greece. By taking such a wide variety of classes I hope to learn what Greek culture is truly like rather than what is depicted in the travel books and blogs. Having only lived in the United States, it will be interesting to see how societies in other countries and cultures handle extreme crisis, and how their methods and perspectives are different from ours. I hope that by being exposed to this and by embarking on this journey I can begin to shape myself into a truly accepting and educated global citizen.